


it's lonely where you are, so come back down

by serafinawitchwoman



Category: TANIS - Fandom, The Black Tapes Podcast
Genre: Gen, happysad! moose twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 04:50:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6642013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serafinawitchwoman/pseuds/serafinawitchwoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Ms. Reagan? We've found the cabin. You'd better come right away."</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's lonely where you are, so come back down

 It's worse than she could have ever imagined, seeing him like this.

  
 It takes her a moment to get a good look. There are so many people, all taller than her, all the police and the ambulance lights and no one is letting her through god _dammit–_

She can't see him and she hasn't seen him and here, in this horrible horrible eldfen, swampy with evil and mist and things older than God, if she loses sight of him neither of them will ever be real ever again. They'll just fizzle out and float away, anchorless as leaves on a river.

So she shoves, hard, muscling through the gathering throng. Probably definitely elbows a cop or two in the balls. Old instincts die hard. Push and shove and she's almost to the front. A gap between people like a gap between trees, she edges through and then–

  
 Oh God, Jesus MaryandJoseph, it _is_ him. Stumbling out of that goddamn fucking cabin with a gash on his leg and a scar on his temple and his eyes squinted shut against the light.

  
 And then they see each other.

  
 He doesn't look like himself. Vacant, like a part of him isn't there anymore. His pupils are too wide, his face is too slack, muscles too loose on his bones. He's blinking, hard, trying to focus on her. He can't remember where he's ever seen her before.  
 So of course, she immediately runs across the clearing and tacklehugs him.

  
 She's holding him so tightly, her friend, her friend, her partner in crime and truth and everything, he's back with her, and it feels like his body under her palms, under his shirt, and he's real. He's not hugging her back but her face is hidden in his neck and she's crying so hard it's all she can do to say _Nic Nic Nic Nic Nic_ , over and over and over again, like his pulse against her cheek.  
    And he's not moving, he doesn't say anything, her Nic—  
   "Oh my God. That's my name."

Such awful hushed wonderment in his voice, like a small child's. And then–

  
 "Oh my God, that's my name, Alex, _Alex_ –"

  
  And he folds around her, collapses against her like he was built to, his head falling against her shoulder, his arms around her back, and his chest heaving with sobs.

  
  They're covered in blood and salt water and there are shadows all around them. Nothing is okay. But they've found each other again, they two, so in that moment Alex knows beyond a doubt that everything will be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the song "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls, because I'm pop-punk trash with a dark sense of humor.  
> If you can spot the references, then extra (pot, because moose twins) brownie points for you!  
> (Edited on 4/29 to include a line accidentally deleted from the original draft.)


End file.
